The offense, what little of it there was Thursday night, disappeared after the fifth inning. For those familiar with the script used by the Tampa Bay Rays earlier this season, that was a bad sign.

But these are better days for the Rays, days when they believe they will win, and they did.

Evan Longoria snapped a tie with a home run in the ninth inning, and Fernando Rodney shut the door on another team as Tampa Bay beat the Chicago White Sox, 3-2, at U.S. Cellular Field.

"All year that's the kind of game that's put us behind the eight ball a little bit when we don't win it," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "The offense disappears and the pitching stays in there, but eventually something negative were to happen later in the game. We turned it around (Thursday night). The home run turned it around."